But John Grimek knew that the basics worked. He didn’t need muscle confusion, or new routines every 8-12 weeks. As long as his program was working, there was no need to change it.

John Grimek’s primary exercises included presses, dumbbell presses, squats, power cleans, deadlifts, snatches, barbell bent over rowing and curls. He did very little else, and was always focused on adding more weight to the bar, eating enough food, and getting plenty of rest.

]]>http://muscleandbrawn.com/john-grimek-training-routine/feed/4The Monster Confusion 10 Week Muscle Mass Building Cyclehttp://muscleandbrawn.com/the-monster-confusion-10-week-muscle-mass-building-cycle/
http://muscleandbrawn.com/the-monster-confusion-10-week-muscle-mass-building-cycle/#commentsTue, 22 Sep 2009 12:11:56 +0000http://muscleandbrawn.com/?p=1126The importance of the muscle confusion principle is well known. If you keep working your body the same way for months on end, it will adapt. And finding a suitable lifting routine to replace the one your currently on can be a headache.

Consider this article to be your headache cure.

The Monster Confusion 10 week muscle mass building cycle isn’t just an endless string of different styles of training. It is various styles of training interwoven throughout a 10 week cycle. One day you might hit legs with a 5×5 style, and the next day you might use a Dorian Yates style arm-blasting routine. With this cycle, no 2 days – or 2 weeks, for that matter – are ever the same.

And because of this, you can use the Monster Confusion Cycle year round, if you so choose. Or, you can plug in new routines, and take out ones that aren’t suited for your needs. Consider the Monster Confusion Cycle your ultimate mass building tool.

The styles. The following lifting routines and styles are integrated into the Monster Confusion Cycle.

5×5. 5×5’s are well known as great mass and strength building routines.

Bulldozer Training. Bulldozer Training is the creation of Muscle and Brawn’s webmaster. It’s basically Doggcrapp training without training to failure, combined with Max-Stim training without using single reps.

20 Rep Squats. The king of torture, which also happens to be the king of all mass inducing exercises.

Dorian Yates. This Mr. Olympia is know for his high intensity, Heavy Duty-influenced style.

Gironda 8 x 8. Vince Gironda was known for using this incredible training system. prepare for muscle soreness.

Burns. Burn sets are higher rep sets, usually to 50 or 100 total reps, performed with Bulldozer style rest-pause.

10×3. 10 sets of 3 reps, with 45 seconds rest between sets.

High Rep Sets. High rep sets are performed in the 10-20 rep range for most muscle groups.

Training splits. It is beyond the scope of this article to get into training split theory, and the amount of rest needed between workouts. use the Monster Confusion Cycle to your benefit…mold it to your favorite split, and the rest periods that work best for you. For the sake of example, I have provided a 3-day split example program.

The 3 Day a Week Monster Confusion Cycle. This system features a push, pull and legs day.

Day 1. Chest, Shoulders and Triceps

Day 2. OFF

Day 3. Back, Biceps and Traps

Day 4. OFF

Day 5. Quads, Hamstrings and Calves

Day 6. OFF

Day 7. OFF

NOTE: Perform Ab work as needed, and on the best day suited for you. This may vary week to week.

Chest, shoulders and triceps. Perform the following style training on the week listed…

Westside. Max Effort – Deadlifts, build up in weight using heavy singles, and then shoot for new max. Dynamic Effort – Deadlifts, do 8 sets of single speed reps with 60% of your 1 rep max, using only 15 deep breaths between reps. Then perform 3 sets of 6×10 reps, back exercise, Bicep movement

Yates. One set per exercise performed to failure, using rest-pause, forced reps, static holds and negatives when possible. Do 2 sets of squats, 6-10 reps, 1 Quad exercise, 1-2 Hamstring exercises, and a Calf exercise.

Notes. The exercises included in the example routine are just that…examples. Feel free to tweak them to fit your needs. Just don’t stray too far from primary, compound movements.

Also, try and keep your workout times under an hour. As you become experienced with this system of training, you can tweak the amount of exercises performed in a workout to keep you in the 45 minutes to an hour workout range.

On Westside training days, feel free to switch up the exercises used for Max Effort days. It is also recommended that you tailor your supporting exercises to your weaknesses.

Bulldozer style rest-pause sets (to 20, 50 or 100 reps) require that you pick a moderately heavy weight, do as many reps as possible (not to failure), take 10-15 deep breaths, then do more reps. Continue this pattern until the desired rep total is achieved.

On Dorian Yates training days, do NOT use negative reps or high intensity techniques for deadlifts or squats.